PRESSING OR STRESSING? IT MAKES A DIFFERENCE.
LESSON 1: INTRODUCTION
Thesis Statement; How do you manage stress in an increasingly stressful world?
What is stress? Stress occurs when a person is confronted or subjected to circumstances that have the potential to change or affect their status quo (the current condition or state). We automatically begin to assess our resources and capabilities.
The difference maker: how we handle or manage it.
Explain distress and eustress using the “getting fired from the job example”. We want to answer a few questions over the next twelve weeks. A) What is your understanding of stress? B) How do you identify stress? C) How do you manage stress?
Thesis Statement 2 or my premise is: Mishandling or mismanagement of stress leads to separation from God resulting in trouble, sin, and in some cases death.
Read Psalm 107 and let’s start to explore what the Bible has to say or imply about stress.
Psalm 107
King James Version (KJV)
107 O give thanks unto the Lord, for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever.
2 Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, whom he hath redeemed from the hand of the enemy; If you know you have been redeemed you need to start confessing it.
3 And gathered them out of the lands, from the east, and from the west, from the north, and from the south.
4 They wandered in the wilderness in a solitary way; they found no city to dwell in.
5 Hungry and thirsty, their soul fainted in them. (isolation, church, food, drink)
6 Then they cried unto the Lord in their trouble, and he delivered them out of their distresses.
7 And he led them forth by the right way, that they might go to a city of habitation. (Acts 2:41-47)
8 Oh that men would praise the Lord for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men! (There is always something to praise God for.)
9 For he satisfieth the longing soul, and filleth the hungry soul with goodness.
10 Such as sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, being bound in affliction and iron; (Psalm 22)
11 Because they rebelled against the words of God, and contemned the counsel of the most High:
12 Therefore he brought down their heart with labour; they fell down, and there was none to help.(Rebellion causes stress)
13 Then they cried unto the Lord in their trouble, and he saved them out of their distresses.
14 He brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death, and brake their bands in sunder.
15 Oh that men would praise the Lord for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men!
16 For he hath broken the gates of brass, and cut the bars of iron in sunder.(bondage)
17 Fools because of their transgression, and because of their iniquities, are afflicted.
18 Their soul abhorreth all manner of meat; and they draw near unto the gates of death. (people who know to do right but still do wrong)
19 Then they cry unto the Lord in their trouble, and he saveth them out of their distresses.
20 He sent his word, and healed them, and delivered them from their destructions.
21 Oh that men would praise the Lord for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men!
22 And let them sacrifice the sacrifices of thanksgiving, and declare his works with rejoicing. (serve God)
23 They that go down to the sea in ships, that do business in great waters;
24 These see